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A cross section of Corps members participants at the sports and cultural festival
By Akanji Olowolodu, Bauchi
Corps members serving in the six states of the North-East have been called upon to use the annual NYSC sports and cultural festival to expand friendship horizons in order to promote peace and Unity in the country.
The call was made by the Bauchi State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Rifkatu Yakubu while addressing Corps members who are participating in the ongoing Zonal Preliminaries of the 2023 NYSC Sports and Cultural Festival at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Wailo, Ganjuwa LGA of Bauchi State.
Rifkatu Yakubu was speaking on Saturday at the inauguration of the Sports and Cultural Festival at the Zonal level.
According to her, “the festival had gone a long way in promoting national unity and integration, it had also, to a great extent, enhanced national sports, cultural integration and development in the country.”
Rifkatu Yakubu said that, “I wish to use this medium to encourage you all to grab this opportunity to expand the horizons of friendship among yourselves. Also, ensure that you don’t take your participation in any of these activities as a do or die affair.”
“May I also charge all the officiating teams, schedule officers and coaches to act with utmost fairness so as to avoid rancour and bitterness,” she said.
The Coordinator explained that the festival was also aimed at sharpening the sporting skills of Corps members, learn about the cultural backgrounds of other tribes, saying that it would hold across the Six zones of Osun, Enugu, Delta, Jigawa and Bauchi states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Rifkatu Yakubu listed the states to compete in the Bauchi zone to include; Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Kano, Taraba and Yobe states.
The state Coordinator added that Corps members from these states would be competing in football, volleyball, track events (athletics), dance, drama, as well as comedy.
Earlier, the Deputy Director, Community Development Service, NYSC National Directorate, Headquarters, Abuja, Alhaji Abdullahi Shuaibu, urged the participants to play fairly, interact with one another and establish good relationships with one another.
He reminded them that though winners will have the opportunity to represent the Zone at the National edition of the games, there is honour in losing honourably stressing that in every competition, there must be winner and loser.
While urging the winners to be magnanimous in victory by appreciating other competitors who lost out, he admonish the losers to accept it in good faith in order to fight to win another day.
